


Together

by snarky_saxophonist



Category: Baseball RPF
Genre: Fluff, Injury, M/M, World Series, adorable puppies being adorable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-09 06:45:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8879995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snarky_saxophonist/pseuds/snarky_saxophonist
Summary: Nothing can dampen the joy of a World Series win, right?





	1. Chapter 1

Anthony’s eyes were riveted intently on the ball as he watched Mike Montgomery throw to Michael Martinez, praying that this wouldn’t result in another fluky play lending credence to the Curse of the Billy Goat. His heart was in his throat as he watched Kris scamper forward, fielding the ball and throwing it towards him. Anthony’s eyes left Kris, following the ball as it flew towards him. The throw was a little high, but Anthony caught it easily, stepping on the bag and throwing his arms up in victory. He stuffed the ball in his pocket and ran across the field, heading towards Kris. Kris, who had expertly fielded the ground ball to get the last out of the World Series. Kris, who had just helped the Cubs win their first World Series in 108 years. Kris, who… still hadn’t gotten back to his feet after slipping on the wet grass to get the ball. Anthony’s run towards his boyfriend turned into a dead sprint, worry coursing through his veins. Kris was grinning broadly, but hadn’t moved, and Anthony was pretty sure the crinkles around his eyes were from pain, not his smile.

“Kris!” he called as he neared the third baseman. “Kris, are you alright?”

“I’m fastastic,” Kris replied, his smile as blinding as ever. “Come here and hug me! We just won the World Series!”

Anthony dropped to his knees next to him, pulling him in for a tight hug despite the faint unease still sitting in his gut. Kris clung to him for a moment before starting to stand up, still hugging him. Anthony stood with him, not missing the fact that Kris was holding tightly to him as if he needed the support in order to stand.

“Kris, are you sure-” he started, but was cut off when the whooping crowd of Cubs migrated over to the two of them. He watched Kris in concern for a few moments after they were separated by other teammates hugging both of them, but Kris seemed to be walking around fine when he caught glimpses of him in the crowd. Anthony wrote off his initially seeming injured as just having tweaked something when he slipped, and allowed himself to bask in the glow of having won the World Series. As a Chicago Cub, no less! 

 

Hours later, after crying, carrying Grandpa off the field, crying, soaking everything in champagne, hugging every teammate at least a hundred times, crying a little more as a team, and only barely realizing the magnitude of what they’d just done, most of the Cubs finally started heading for the showers. Anthony looked around for Kris to walk with him and make sure he wasn’t feeling any ill effects from his earlier fall, but the third baseman was nowhere to be found.

“Hey, Grandpa, you seen Kris?” He asked David as the catcher headed past him, an arm slung around Jon Lester.

“Nope. Could be that he’s already in the showers,” David said, giving Anthony’s shoulder a squeeze as he walked by. 

“Haven’t seen him either,” Lester said, giving Rizzo a smile. “I’m sure he’ll turn up somewhere.”

“Thanks,” Anthony said, but the sinking feeling in his gut told him that Kris was most likely not in the showers. His nagging suspicion from earlier was back, and he headed for the trainer’s room, hoping that he wouldn’t find Kris there.

Unfortunately, Anthony’s hunch proved correct, as Kris was lying back on one of the tables as PJ prodded gently at his swollen right knee.

“-should have told me about it immediately,” the trainer was scolding Kris as Anthony stopped by the door.

“I’m sorry,” Kris said, wincing as PJ palpated a particularly tender spot. “It hurt a bit at first, but I honestly didn’t feel it again until I was heading for the showers, and then I came to you. I thought about it briefly at one point, but it wasn’t bothering me then, so I assumed I had just tweaked it a little.”

“You have to be more careful in the future,” PJ chided him, finishing his examination and crossing the room to retrieve a towel and ice. “Given that you’ve been walking around on it for so long and it doesn’t seem that bad, I’m going to conjecture that you got lucky and it’s only a minor sprain, but we’ll get you in for an MRI tomorrow to make sure.”

“I’m sorry,” Kris said again, miserably. “I didn’t mean to ignore it. At least I don’t have to worry about being back in shape for the next game tomorrow, right?”

PJ smiled slightly, wrapping Kris’s knee in the towel and propping up the ice packs around it. “You did pick a good time to get injured, I suppose. Hang out here for twenty minutes to ice it, then you’re good to go. Stay off it as much as you can tonight and ice it more in a couple hours, and take ibuprofen if you need it.”

“Thanks,” Kris said. “I really am sorry about not telling you immediately.”

“I know you are,” the trainer said, patting his good knee reassuringly. “And I’m sure it won’t happen again, so don’t worry about it.”

Kris sighed, rolling his head to look around the room. He spotted Rizzo standing at the door and brightened immediately. “Riz! What are you doing here?” he asked.

PJ turned around and also caught sight of him, although he looked decidedly less happy about it than Kris. “Please, please tell me you’re not hurt too.”

“I’m not, I promise,” Rizzo said, finally stepping into the room. “I just came to check on Kris cause I had a nagging suspicion earlier that he was actually hurt.”

“And you didn’t say anything either?” PJ asked in exasperation. “Guys, I can’t do my job and keep you healthy if I don’t know about these things. You have to tell me in the future, even if you think it’s minor.”

“We will,” the two athletes promised in unison. 

“Uh huh,” PJ muttered skeptically. “You two need anything right now? I have to head out momentarily.”

Anthony shook his head as Kris said “No, but thanks, PJ.”

“Alright, good,” the trainer said, heading out of the room. “Come see me tomorrow, Kris, and congratulations to the both of you!”

With that, the two infielders were left alone in the room, Rizzo still hovering awkwardly by the door.

“Oh, come over here and yell at me,” Kris said exasperatedly, shifting on the table so Rizzo could sit down next to him. Anthony sat down next to his boyfriend, leaning against the wall so Kris could rest his head against his shoulder.

“You’re stupid, you know,” Anthony told him, gently kissing the top of his head. Kris hmmed in acknowledgement but didn’t say anything. “You had to cling on to me in order to stand up, and you “assumed you had just tweaked it a little”? You know better than that. If you can’t stand without help more than a few seconds after initially hurting yourself, it’s not that minor and you know it. And what if you’d torn something and tried to walk around on it? Being careless about your health like that could end your career over a decade early.”

“I know,” Kris mumbled, picking at the hem of his shirt. “It was stupid, and I won’t do it again, but once it sunk in that we had just won the World Series, I guess the adrenaline and exhilaration drowned it out.”

“You lied to me,” Anthony reminded him. “I asked you if you were alright and you said you were fine, then used me as a crutch in order to stand up.”

“I’m sorry,” Kris said again. “I shouldn’t have, I know, but we’d just won the World Series and I didn’t want anything to ruin that for you or anybody else. I thought it’d be okay for a little bit and I’d go see PJ as soon as we got off the field if it was still hurting.”

“You scared me,” Anthony admitted softly. “When I saw that you still hadn’t gotten up, and I could tell that you were in pain, I was terrified. A World Series win isn’t worth you getting badly hurt. We’ll win more titles together, I’m sure, but not if your career ends before we have the chance again.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Kris said confidently. “At least, I won’t let it happen from being stupid. I’ll be more careful in the future about things like this.”

“Make sure you are,” the first baseman put an arm around Kris’s shoulder, pulling him in more tightly against him. “I don’t want to lose you.”

“You won’t,” Kris promised. “No matter what happens with baseball, you’ll have me as long as you want me.”

“Forever,” Anthony said, kissing Kris’s cheek. “I want you with me forever.”

“Is this your way of proposing?” Kris joked, turning his head so he could kiss Anthony on the lips.

“No, that will involve a lot more flair. And food. And baseball,” Anthony told him, completely serious. “And will not take place in a trainer’s room with your knee swollen to watermelon size.”

Ignoring the comment about his knee, Kris snuggled closer to Anthony, smiling softly at him. “I can’t wait,” he said quietly, squeezing his boyfriend’s hand. Anthony just smiled mischievously and squeezed his hand back in response.

“Can’t wait for what?” A new voice interrupted. Kyle Hendricks walked into the room, heading for the freezer to grab some ice. “And what are you two doing here? Just finding a quiet spot to hang out?”

“Nothing,” Kris said hastily. “And, uh, not exactly.”

The pitcher grabbed a bag of ice out of the freezer, turning back towards the couple. He registered Kris’s knee, propped up and swollen, and his eyes widened. “Shit!” he exclaimed, taking a few quick steps towards them. “What happened? Was that on the last out?”

“Yeah,” Kris admitted. “PJ thinks it’s just a bit of a sprain, but they’re going to do an MRI tomorrow just to be sure.”

“How bad is it? You seemed like you were walking around fine after,” Kyle said, then his eyes narrowed. “Hold on, did you not tell anyone until just now?”

“With the adrenaline and elation of victory, I didn’t notice it again for several hours,” Kris said honestly. “And I know I deserve a lecture on the subject, but I already got one from PJ and Riz, and I’m most likely going to get one from Grandpa and Schwarbs and Joe and my family.”

“I’ll skip it for now, but if you ever do something this stupid again, you’re going to get lectured to within an inch of your life. You got lucky this time, you might not again,” Kyle said mildly. “I might be soft spoken, but I’m a professor, I know how to lecture.”

“You’re not a professor, you’re the Professor,” Kris joked, relieved at Kyle’s exoneration. “And I won’t, I promise. I gotta be out there to watch your back when you pitch, right?”

“You’d better be,” Kyle said, tapping Kris’s left ankle. “Be careful, alright? We need you out there at 100%.”

“I have all offseason to recover, not that I’ll need it,” Kris replied. “But thanks.”

“I should get back to my family, but take it easy, and nice job tonight, both of you,” the pitcher said, giving them a wave as he left.

“You too!” Kris called after him. 

Anthony poked Kris in the shoulder. “I hope you’re prepared for lectures from almost all of the team. You got off lightly with Kyle.”

“Oh, I know,” Kris groaned. “Grandpa’s going to be so pissed at me.”

“You were being stupid and reckless,” Anthony reminded him gently.

“No, I know, and I‘ve earned the lectures, I just hate it when he yells,” Kris sighed. “Do you think I could just tape a note to my forehead that says ‘I’m stupid, I shouldn’t have done that, I’m sorry, and it won’t happen again’?”

“Doubtful,” Anthony said. “I think you just have to suck it up and let them yell at you. It’s out of concern, you know.”

Kris leaned his head against Anthony’s shoulder again. “Are you done yelling at me?”

“Yes,” Anthony said immediately, kissing Kris’s head. “You apologized and I forgive you. I’m not mad at you, I just want you to feel better now.”

“I feel better just being around you,” Kris said, batting his eyelashes exaggeratedly. 

“That was ridiculously cheesy,” Anthony rolled his eyes, but kissed Kris softly. 

“You know, we just won the World Series,” he whispered against Anthony’s lips. “We really did it.”

“We did,” Anthony agreed. “Together. Just like we’ll do everything else.”


	2. Chapter 2

Kris’s twenty minutes of icing were just about up when David Ross came storming into the trainer’s room, spitting mad. He stopped at the end of the table, glaring at Kris for a beat. 

“You-you-“ he stammered, too angry to formulate a coherent sentence at first. “You goddamned fucking idiot!”

Kris cringed into Anthony miserably, who rubbed his hand along Kris’s shoulder blade. He knew the coming storm from Ross was born from his affection for Kris, and Kris knew it too, but it was never easy to get yelled at, or to watch someone yell at the person you love most. Kris opened his mouth, probably to apologize, but Ross cut him abruptly off.

“No, you don’t get to fucking talk right now. How fucking stupid are you? Do you have a single goddamned brain cell in that head of yours? Huh? Because I don’t know how on earth you could justify getting up and walking around after falling and hurting your knee like that! What on earth possessed you to think that would be a good idea? Oh, that’s right, you probably weren’t thinking. In what world should you be walking and jumping around on an injury bad enough that you needed help just standing up?” Ross yelled. “Do you want to join me in retirement right now? Because that’s exactly what’s going to happen if you keep on being a fucking moron like this! You can’t fucking ignore injuries and not get checked out because you assume it probably isn’t awful! We have athletic trainers for a fucking reason, and you need to learn to stop being fucking reckless and stupid!”

“I’m sorry,” Kris mumbled when Ross paused to take a breath in. 

“You’re fucking sorry?” Ross repeated incredulously. “No, you’re not fucking sorry! You’ll be fucking sorry when you do this again except it’ll be a worse injury, and it’ll end your fucking career at age twenty-five! When you get hurt like that, you wait for the trainer to come check you out, you don’t try to get up and walk around when you can’t initially stand on your own! And you especially don’t walk around on it for hours afterwards! What in God’s name made you think any of this was a good idea?”

“I-I don’t know,” Kris muttered. “I was being stupid. I shouldn’t have.”

“You’re damn right you shouldn’t have!” Ross snapped. “You got lucky this time, what if you decide next time it’ll be fine to ignore an injury again, and you end up ignoring a head injury and ending up with fucking brain damage? You can’t be so damn reckless with your health! You need to take responsibility for it and let the trainers take care of you! It’s their job to do that, and your fucking job to let them know so they can!”

“I won’t do it again, I swear,” Kris interjected quickly. “I’ll be more careful, and I’ll let the trainers check me out, I promise.”

“Hours, Kris!” Ross said harshly. “You were walking around on that damn knee for hours! Why did you not go to PJ before now?”

“I didn’t notice it again until the adrenaline and post-victory high wore off,” Kris said softly. “I went to PJ as soon as it started hurting again, but I wasn’t feeling any pain between the end of the game and then.”

“You’re gonna send me to an early grave, kid,” Ross said, seemingly having blown off his anger by now. “You can’t pull this kind of shit.”

“I’m sorry,” Kris said yet again. “I won’t ever do this again, I’ll be a lot more careful in the future.”

“You’d better,” David said, walking over to Kris and pulling away him away from Anthony to hug him gently. “You worried me when you didn’t get up right away, and when Kyle told us you were in the trainer’s room and hurt, I was downright scared.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry anybody, I just wasn’t thinking,” Kris said glumly. 

“You were being stupid as fuck,” Ross said matter-of-factly. “You need to think about long term consequences, not just about a quick celebration. It wouldn’t be much of a celebration if it ended with you announcing you’re retiring because your knee, or whatever other body part, is fucked.”

“I will from now on,” Kris promised again. “I’ll take better care of myself from here on out.”

“Good,” Ross said. “Glad to hear it. Now, Rizzo, what the fuck were you doing?”

“What?” Rizzo asked, surprised to be on the receiving end of Ross’s second round of wrath. 

“He used you as a crutch to be able to stand up, and you didn’t think to fucking drag him to the trainer’s?” Ross demanded. “What were you thinking? Do you not care about Kris?”

“Of course I do!” Anthony snapped back. “I love him! I didn’t realize it was that bad, he was walking around on it fine shortly after!”

“And yet he needed your help to get up off the ground,” David reminded him. “You didn’t think that something might possibly be wrong and maybe you should ask PJ to check him out?”

“I trusted Kris to take care of himself! I thought that maybe he stayed down for so long cause he was in shock about actually winning the World Series!” Anthony defended. 

“You didn’t think to make sure just in case? You decided to just ignore the fact that he couldn’t get up on his own?” Ross shot back.

“I thought he might’ve tweaked something and was just in a huggy mood,” Anthony protested, well aware that it was a weak defense.

Ross snorted. “You shouldn’t ever assume anything like that. Always make sure your teammates are actually alright when something like that happens, especially when they might not get themselves checked out.”

“Okay, it won’t happen again,” Anthony told him. “But I really don’t appreciate the accusation that I don’t care about the love of my life, because I was actually on my way to make sure he was feeling alright when I ran into you earlier.”

“That was a bit out of line,” David admitted. “I’m sorry about that, but you two need to take care of each other, and watch out when things like this happen.”

“We will,” Kris interjected. “This isn’t Anthony’s fault, it’s all on me. It’s my responsibility to take care of my own health, but we’ll be more diligent in the future.”

“You’d better be, I don’t want to see either of you boys get hurt in the future, especially when I’ll be retired and not able to intervene and help you,” Ross said, tapping Anthony’s shoulder to get him to join into an awkward three way hug. “I'll miss you two.”

“We’ll miss you too, Grandpa,” Kris said sadly. “You sure you don’t want to rethink retirement?”

“No, my time here is done,” the catcher said resignedly. “I’ll be sitting on my couch from now on, watching your time in the sun. I expect at least a couple more championships out of both of you.”

“We’ll do our best next year,” Kris said.

“I know you will, but that’ll be easier if you don’t miss half the season by being stupid about your injuries,” David rebuked him gently.

“I know, I know,” the third baseman replied. “I won’t do this again, I swear.”

“I believe you, but I hope you know that the rest of the team is going to give you grief about this for the next 108 years,” David told him.

“Ugh,” Kris groaned. “Can’t you tell them to not?”

“Even if they’d listen to me, I wouldn’t. It might be good for you to have a reminder that your health is more important than a game.”

“I have a reminder of that already,” Kris said, poking Anthony in the shoulder pointedly. “And as great as it’s been talking to you, I’m free from my ice now, so I really really want to go shower and get the lovely combination of sweat and champagne off of me.”

“Aw, why would you ever wanna do that?” Grandpa asked sarcastically, helping Kris remove the half-melted ice and towel from his knee. Rizzo hopped up as well, standing next to Kris on the other side of the table so Kris could hold onto his arm when he stood up. Kris eased himself to his feet, putting his weight onto his uninjured left leg first, then cautiously shifting it to his right leg. He let go of Rizzo a second later, giving him a grateful smile as he started walking slowly out of the room. 

“Are you good?” Anthony asked in concern, hovering next to Kris’s elbow as they head towards the door.

“Yeah, it doesn’t hurt that much and it doesn’t feel like it’s going to give out on me while I’m walking, so all good,” Kris replied with a genuine smile. 

“If you boys are good here, I’m going to excuse myself to get back to Hyla and the kids,” David said. “I told them I had to deal with something, but they’re probably wondering where I am by now.”

“One last hug before you leave, then,” Rizzo said, enveloping Ross in his embrace. Kris joined them, being sure to rub his champagne and sweat soaked hair against Grandpa’s. 

“Really, boys?” Ross asked, giving them an unimpressed look. “Not cool. I’m leaving now.”

“Bye, Gramps,” Rizzo hollered after him, slinging an arm around Kris’s shoulders. “Looks like it’s just you and me, yet again.”

“Why, you complaining?” Kris asked mildly.

“Never,” Rizzo replied fondly, leaning up slightly to kiss Kris’s cheek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't write endings at all. I'm so sorry.


End file.
